


An Excerpt of the Void Campaign

by Oddaudrey



Series: Void Campaign Stories [1]
Category: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Genre: Gen, Just the team hanging out and meeting new friends, Mention of eating the defeated villain
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-01 20:40:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23613178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Oddaudrey/pseuds/Oddaudrey
Summary: Alcor awakens after receiving a strange vision concerning his 'fate' and the team meets a new friend.
Relationships: none...yet
Series: Void Campaign Stories [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1699669
Kudos: 1





	An Excerpt of the Void Campaign

Consciousness came back slowly and blearily for Alcor, the vision of cloaked orc before him, the tight hold on his wrist came back to him in flashes.

His words echoing in Alcor’s head. 

_“Your purpose? There is none now. That is the curse Aetherius has placed on you. You are no longer tied to Fate or Belonging. You are Lost at Sea. A Formless One."_

Alcor winced as he sat up and moved his legs to the side of the bed that he woke up in. It was still strange to him, falling unconscious in the middle of a battle, experiencing a strange existential vision, and then awaking as if everything had been a bad dream.

From the corner of his eye he caught sight of Zero who was curled up on the floor beside his bed, still asleep. 

Alcor tried in vain not to wake her but as his feet touched the floor she jolted upright, her eyes still half-lidded with sleep. 

She almost looked surprised to see him, but most of all she was relieved. 

“Alcor?” She asked softly. 

“I’m sorry I woke you. Is everyone alright?” Alcor asked, “I don’t remember what happened with the battle.” 

“Everyone is fine, and you didn’t wake me. I was sort of waiting for you.” Zero assured him, “After we killed the cult leader, everyone else woke up…Except for you.”

Alcor felt a pang of guilt in his chest. He hated the thought of causing his friend's such worry, and worse, he wasn’t even conscious to help them when they needed him. 

He extended his hand for Zero to take, “About what happened...Maybe I should explain it with you and all the others. They're downstairs right? Let's join them.”

Zero accepts his hand and his help in rising to her feet, nodding in affirmation that the others are likely already up and downstairs.

Sure enough, Apsu was already downstairs eating breakfast with Ethnir while the others were relaxing outside.

"Hello everyone!" Alcor says happily, with Zero's help he makes it downstairs without much trouble.

“Good morning.” Zero adds in. 

Apsu perks up immediately, wagging her tail happily as she jumps out of her seat to greet her friends. 

“Speckled One! Bringer of Strange Meats! You are awake!” She says. 

“Does this mean you’re feeling better then, Alcor?” Ethnir joins them to ask. 

Alcor smiles, “I am.”  
“Anything good for breakfast?” Zero asks, situating Alcor in a chair by the table. 

“Oh! Yes! You both need to eat!” Apsu grabs one of the plates of food and shoves it in both Zero and Alcor’s faces, “Eat up!”

Zero graciously accepted the food, Alcor waited a bit, he wasn’t feeling up to eating but with Apsu looking at him with those wide hopeful eyes…He slowly ate a piece of bacon offered to him, that made Apsu very happy. 

…

Xybis and Mina sat outside eating breakfast, Xybis busy at work on drawing. Steiner and Quibb watched her intently. It was peaceful, so peaceful that it was hard to believe many were close to death just yesterday. 

"Lots of eggs you're having there" Xybis comments to Mina. 

"Them'fe nutritious," Mina replies through a mouthful of baked beans.

Everett was leaning against the railing, watching as Hoots flew back from his search and landed on his shoulder. 

He glanced over to Mina who was watching him curiously, “I had Hoots investigate the area. We should be safe for now but I think we should leave this town quickly before any witnesses try to incriminate us. Nobody seemed to know what Rythos was doing.”

"Ye've got a point there.” Mina agreed, her eyes shifting back to Xybis drawing. 

“What is it gonna be?” Quibb asked, leaning in closer to Xybis’ side. 

"I'm trying to sketch out a storm, it's hard with just charcoal, but I love a good challenge!” Xybis said, showing her the paper. 

“Can I draw something too? Please?” Quibb asks. 

“Well of course!” Xybis said, sliding Quibb a piece of paper with some charcoal to use.

Quibb sat crisscrossed on the deck and was hard at work, gaining the interest of both Mina and Everett, though Everett would occasionally look away as if to make it seem like he wasn’t looking. 

She didn’t seem too pleased with what she was starting out with, “Hm, I don’t know, it won’t look as good as yours.” 

"Nonsense! Anything you create will be beautiful because you're the only one who created it!” Xybis encouraged her. 

Steiner watched the artists at work happily, “It’s nice that we can relax like this, even for just now. That battle yesterday was tough.” He said, and he knew when battles were tough, being a war hero himself. 

“We’re lucky to be alive.” Everett said frankly, “That was troublesome…” 

"Troublesome is the word for it," Mina agrees with a chuckle, "I'll nae be goin' withoot a thick pair of socks for months.”

“I finished!” Quibb announces out loud, holding up her drawing to show everyone.

"Oh, it's gorgeous! You've got a wonderful eye for detail, that's a real gift!” Xybis said, Quibb grabbed onto her claw and shook it happily. 

“I do wonder if Alcor is alright, he still hadn’t so much as twitched since last I saw him. It’s been more than 12 hours now.” Steiner mused, his chin resting in the palm of his hand. 

“Hopefully he’ll be up soon, I’d like to get moving. We shouldn’t be staying here.” Everett said, moving to return inside. Hoots pecked at his pointy ears as if telling him ‘you should check up on him!’

Mina was already ahead of Hoots, scarfing down the rest of her breakfast before saying “Let’s go check on him.” 

…

Back inside the inn, Alcor had plenty of questions over how the battle against Rythos went down, to which Apsu was happy to provide answers. 

“That blue cloak had bad character.” She said, “Tasted tingly too.”

“Tasted…Tingly?” Alcor questioned slowly. 

“Oh yes,” Apsu agreed, shaking her head, “I wish to never eat meat like that ever again in the future.” 

“You…ate him.” Alcor sat there in shock for a moment. It was hard to believe that the man who murdered and tormented him had become his friend’s meal. 

Zero leaned down to where Alcor sat, “It wasn’t just Apsu.” She remarked, to which Alcor’s only response was another wide-eyed expression of disbelief. 

Suddenly, the entrance door slammed open and in came the pink dragon-born, “ALCOR!!!” She shouted happily. 

Mina followed behind her, putting away her dishes and then giving Alcor a friendly slap across the shoulder, “Alcor! Good tae see ye back upright!” She said. 

Xybis knelt to her friend’s level and barraged him with questions, “Are you damaged? Can I hug you? I was so worried about you!” 

When Alcor gave her the okay, Xybis scooped him up and hugged him. Alcor caught Everett walking in and saw him quietly nod before walking upstairs.

That was Everett’s version of ‘glad you’re okay’. 

“What happened to you? You just collapsed!” Xybis asked while putting him back down. 

“It’s rather strange actually, I’m still not entirely sure what happened…But I was approached by Rythos.” Alcor explained, “He said he was ordered to kill me to prevent some kind of fate from enacting. Now that I am undead, it seems that I don’t have a fate anymore.”

No fate? That enough caused Zero to worry. 

“What does that mean?” She asked him. 

“I am unsure. I can’t question him further because he is dead, perhaps more answers will come in time.” Alcor said, he stood up from his chair, still shaky on his feet, and humbly bowed in front of his friends, “I want to thank you all for avenging me and protecting me. I regret not being able to help.” 

“Aw, don’t mention it, ya sap.” Mina teased a bit, “We’re all together in this, aren’t we?” 

“I’m glad you’re alright!” Quibb exclaims as she reaches for a hug. 

“Of course, you were especially brave too, Quibb. I’m proud of you.” He said, placing a hand upon her head and ruffling up her hair. 

Quibb bashfully twiddled her fingers. 

Mina retreated to the bar, nothing like some good alcohol to start the morning off good. 

Next to the bar, Zero began to rummage through her things. Making sure it's all in order. She runs across the science kit she never gave to Quibb, and pulls it out, turning to look for the girl. Now is as good a time as any. It also reminds her that she has yet to give Xybis her cloth.

“I've been meaning to give you this. Forgot about it for a while there.” Zero said, pulling out her gifts, “I got everyone something at the shops.”

Quibb happily grabbed her science kit and Xybis was eager to receive her skein of cloth that could magically change colors.

"I think I'm in love, this is so beautiful." Her hands cover her mouth. "I- you- thank you, so so much!”

Soon after, Everett returned from upstairs, “Twiddles and Laura have left.” He announced. 

Mina puts down her mug of mead slowly on the bar. "Like, left left?”

“Their rooms are empty, as if they were never there in the first place. I checked all over, and there was no sign of them.” Everett says, “Twiddles didn’t strike me as the kind to just... up and go.”

Xybis’ mood dropped, “They left without saying goodbye…”

“Who left?” Alcor asked, clearly he had missed out on something. 

“The big Tiefling guy and his, uh, his…wife?” Mina tried to provide an answer. 

“I’ll send my owl to go look for them. If they’re in trouble, we can do something, but if they want to leave, then, whatever.” Everett sat down by Mina at the bar, he almost seemed upset to see Twiddles go, but his main concern was the prospect of Twiddles and Laura possibly betraying them and alerting the authorities of what happened with the blue cloak cult. 

The entrance to the inn opened once more, everyone looked up, curious to see who it was. Was it Twiddles and Laura returning? Or maybe another blue cloak? 

The person who emerged from the door was a Tabaxi, slightly disheveled in appearance as if he had been traveling for years. The Tabaxi was Rain In Summer, and he had indeed been to almost every corner of the world. This inn was about to bring about a fated meeting. 

He noticed the group’s attention on him and greeted them with a nod, "A pleasant morning, is it not?” He says. 

Apsu was immediately intrigued by this person’s appearance, her pupils dilated, “A cat!” She exclaims, her tail swishing back and forth with interest. 

“Meowdy.” The Tabaxi greets her, he then makes his way towards the bar where Mina watches him closely with interested eyes. He placed his paw on the counter, a strange and familiar mark could be seen on his arm.

While Mina observed quietly, when Apsu’s eyes caught something, she sought it out. 

Upon Rain’s wrist was a marking matching the one that the void had bestowed upon all of them. Apsu held it up for all to see and Rain let out a small ‘mrrr!’ sort of sound out of surprise. 

“You have a marking as well, eh?” Mina inquired through sips of her drink. 

“Us as well!” Apsu showed her own marking.

“That certainly is…curious.” Rain said while pondering. 

“If you’ve been marked by the void then you must have been sent to join us, welcome to our group.” Zero gave a more formal introduction. 

Rain clearly had no idea who they were or what was going on, seeing such a rag-tag group of different species all hanging around each other with freaky tattoos that matched his was strange enough. 

Rain’s ears pressed flat against his head, “I truly am sorry, but I have no idea what you are talking about. I don’t recall marked by anything, I’ve had this for a while, I don’t know where it comes from.” 

“So you were called by the void but don’t recall it…Do you serve the void or another God?” Zero questioned. 

“Oh! Did you also lose your memories like I did, er, well I lost my memories years prior, but still." Alcor asks Rain.

Rain, clearly concerned by everything these people went through and were talking about, answered, “No, are you all alright?”

“We’re on an important mission to save the captured gods and the world!” Xybis exclaims. 

“That does sound important.” Rain agrees, looking down at the mark on his own arm once more. 

“Once you’re marked there’s no getting out of it really. Believe me, I’ve tried.” Everett comments. 

“Will ya join us?” Mina asks. 

Rain looks at everyone, they all seemed like genuine nice folk, and he’s never really found a place for himself, not ever in his whole life. Despite the oddness of it all, the prospect of belonging felt…nice. 

"Hmm..." He hums in thought, ”Well then, please forgive my tardiness! They call me Rain in Summer and I would gladly join you, if you'll have me.”

The group seemed very pleased to welcome him. 

“Welcome to the team, Rain in Summer.” Xybis says formally, holding her arm out for Rain to take. 

He did and she shook it firmly, she had a tight grip. Mina gave him a friendly pat on the shoulder while Apsu stroked his head as if he were a house cat. 

Their group had grown larger as their mission became direr. Unbeknownst to them, Ethnir was about to meet a familiar face.


End file.
